Franklin resigns from Kountze

By Avi Zaleon

Updated 11:55 am, Thursday, July 10, 2014

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Head Coach Tracy Franklin, center, talks to his team in the locker room before they go out on the field to play Woodville. This was the first home football game in Kountze since the sign controversy started and since the Thursday hearing that determined the cheerleaders could or could not use their faith-based signs. Kountze hasn't made the playoffs since 1973, but the team is currently 4-1after losing to Woodville Friday night October 5, 2012. Dave Ryan/The Enterprise less

Head Coach Tracy Franklin, center, talks to his team in the locker room before they go out on the field to play Woodville. This was the first home football game in Kountze since the sign controversy started and ... more

Franklin resigns from Kountze

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Tracy Franklin has resigned as the head football coach, head baseball coach and athletic director at Kountze to become the head baseball coach at Northbrook -a 6A school in Houston with an enrollment of 2,117- Franklin confirmed Thursday.

Franklin said head basketball coach Duane Joubert will take over as interim athletic director. He said he does not know who will fill the football coach vacancy in the interim.

For Franklin, going from three job titles to one played a role in the move.

"Truthfully, Kountze was a great place to be and I'm going to miss those kids," Franklin said. "I have to get my retirement in order. I just want to slow down a bit."

Franklin's son, Ethan, is a Super Gold pitcher entering his senior year. He is committed to Lamar.

"I'm hoping he wants to come with me, but I don't know," the elder Franklin, a Buna grad, said.

The timing is difficult for Kountze, as the Lions start football practice on August 4, less than four weeks away. Franklin said he didn't mean for the move to happen this late, but that's just the way it worked out.

Franklin was hired in June 2012 after coaching at Chester.

In two years, two memories stand out to him; the football team making the playoffs for the first time in 40 years last season and the Kountze cheerleaders.

"They stood for something they believed in and I have a lot of respect for that," Franklin said.

Franklin inherits a Northbrook baseball team that finished 2-12 last year in District 22-4A last year and will move to 6A this season.